Low FG and already very long time spent on it.

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ChefK

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Hei, I hope it is ok to to just open a new thread, I posted a question in another one but did not get a reply. I know I could be more patient but today should have been the day i wanted to bottle.

For Christmas I got the (my first) Coopers Lager kit, Followed the instructions as good as i could. Everything went perfect the krausen came up and settled. SG dropped and Dropped ... until it reached 1013 and the following day 1013 and so it continued.

I started the brew a month ago 04.01. and until today nothing changed. Last week I went to the local homebrewer shop and asked for advice, they told me to try a RockCandy syrup(if i am not mistaken) so I added it and he said to wait a few days and then test again (testing with a Hydrometer) even went and bought a second hydrometer just to be sure.

But it is still stuck at 1013 and I am so tempted to stir the Yeast on the bottom of the bucket. I am not at the point of dumping quiet yet but I am almost at the end of hope I do not think a FG of 1013 is what I should be aiming for.

Any advise or tip or even a hint is highly appreciated, I do not want to dump my liquid gold please
 
Sounds like 1.013 is a pretty good FG. What was your OG? I would go ahead and bottle if you are still at that number.
 
My OG was 1039, I was expecting around 1009, but that just because of what i read so far. I just figuredit was to much... I am also a bit confused that nothing changed when I added the syrup.
 
Hi ChefK, Welcome. Yeah, typically beers and lagers have unfermentable sugars and so you should expect a final gravity of around 1.013. Sounds like you were hoping for a very dry lager but most yeasts that you will be able to buy cannot ferment complex sugars as if they were the more simple sugars found in fruit. I believe that sour beers (lambics) CAN have much lower gravities, but then you are using different bacteria and not lager or ale yeasts to ferment those sugars...
 
The extra sugar you added will ferment out and bump the alcohol of the beer but it's not going to do anything with the unfermentable sugars left, as mentioned above. Figure out how much you bumped your gravity with the sugar, add that to you OG to figure out the new ABV, and package it because it sounds done.
 
1.013 is fine for final gravity. I question the advice from the local shop if you told them it was at at 1.013 and they sold you sugar to "fix it".

Adding sugar to kits is pretty common, so your beer will likely be just fine, with a little higher ABV.

As long as 1.013 has been stable for 3 days since adding the sugar - you are ready to bottle or keg.

Cheers :mug:
 
I often get down to 1.010, but I think you are going to be just fine at 1.013. As exacting as we would like to be, there are so many variables in homebrewing that not everything comes out the way we predict.

I brewed a porter yesterday and was expecting an OG of about 1.060. My percentage of boil off was less than normal for some reason and I ended up with a greater final volume and thus an OG of 1.055. I'm not going to sweat it. I'm sure it will still be a good beer.
 
Thanks for all the replys and I hope that this forum will become a second home for me from here on out. I really like this brewing business and have plenty of space to practise it :)

But then I have one more question, considering that I have waited so long now (35days) am I at risk that the lager is ruined or is it save? There is no mold on top and it just tasted a bit sour during the time it was at 1013, I was thinking it might just be the flatness and the warmth of the beer.

Is it true that the best next step would be to boil the carbonation drops into a syrup and use that in a new bucket and slowly siphon off the brew/tap it into it?

If so how many drops to how much brew and how much water to dissolve them?

Should the syrup be cooled before I add the brew?

Guess I actually had several more questions :) but I guess that you guys understand a newbie like me ^^

Thanks in advance
 
chickypad said:
The extra sugar you added will ferment out and bump the alcohol of the beer but it's not going to do anything with the unfermentable sugars left, as mentioned above. Figure out how much you bumped your gravity with the sugar, add that to you OG to figure out the new ABV, and package it because it sounds done.
Click to expand...

How do I calculate that? I added 100ml syrup.
 
It's no problem leaving it 35 days, unless you see, smell, or taste evidence of infection. With the coopers drops you can just put one directly in a 12 oz bottle, or 2 for a bomber. If priming with actual sugar then yes most folks dissolve the sugar for the whole batch in a little water and put it in the bottling bucket.
 
How much syrup did you add, and did you check the gravity right after adding the syrup? It should have increased the gravity then, when the syrup fermented, you would be back in the same gravity ballpark you were before, or slightly less due to the additional alcohol. Extract beers typically finish a little higher than all-grain, and the addition of the syrup would not increase the fermentability of the extract wort. If you want to ferment it lower, try a more attenuative yeast.
 
Depending on how long it fermented after adding the additional sugar, I would seriously reconsider the need for additional priming sugar at this point. It sounds as if you already have enough sugar in the bucket.

Out of curiosity if the SC was 1.013 before adding the sugar what was the FG?
 
Yeah you guys are super duper fast! I am so amazed.

chickypad said:
How much sugar did you put in the 100 ml and how much volume is in the fermenter? Or was this a commercial syrup?
Click to expand...


I used ready made rock candy syrup.

Yeah I had those huge 0,75l bottles in the kit so I am useing them and according to the instructions I should use two drops per bottle. I just heared that the drops are not even in size and that therefore most people boil them in, into syrup to batch prime the brew.

I am just concerned to bottle too much other yeast and such with, if I do not use a fresh bucket to bottle it.
 
BlkWater_brewer said:
Depending on how long it fermented after adding the additional sugar, I would seriously reconsider the need for additional priming sugar at this point. It sounds as if you already have enough sugar in the bucket.

Out of curiosity if the SC was 1.013 before adding the sugar what was the FG?
Click to expand...

FG at the moment is 1013 before adding the 100ml syrup it was 1013 aswell I sadly did not do a reading right when i added the syrup I thought to do it a while later the same day to give it time to blend and because of time pressure i forgot to check it :/
 
pablosbrewing said:
100ml is less than a half cup, you would have bumped a little over .001 in 5 gallons.
Click to expand...

This. You can pretty much ignore it.

You can still transfer to the bottling bucket and bottle from there even if you are doing individual drops. I've never had a problem with those drops, but if you are worried go ahead and dissolve them first. You can also just use plain sugar and batch prime, with a calculator like this . Not sure the composition of the drops, I think they are a mix of sucrose and glucose.
 
I checked and I have about 20,8l left about 5,5 gallon if google is correct.

I mean the drops are tempting to use, so much easier.
But since I have no clue I wonder what is better

- batch prime with normal sugar
- batch prime with desolved drops
or
- directly to the bottle with drops
 
ChefK said:
I mean the drops are tempting to use, so much easier.
But since I have no clue I wonder what is better

- batch prime with normal sugar
- batch prime with desolved drops
or
- directly to the bottle with drops
Click to expand...

Pick one, go for it, and RDWHAHB!
:mug:
 
Actually had to look that one up and am going to use it in my everyday vocabulary:mug:!
 
And bottled :) cheers! and thanks for all the good advise, my next one will be mexican cerveza, any good tips for that?
 

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